Sometimes fate steps in and changes the course of a life. That’s what happened to Luca Aquino: he was about to go on a “Jazz-Bike-Tour” in the summer of 2017. He’d packed his trumpet and was ready to set off...but then he couldn’t. He had contracted Bell’s palsy, a sudden and acute facial nerve paralysis which put paid to his idea of cycling all the way from his home town of Benevento to Oslo, playing concerts en route. He couldn’t touch the trumpet for more than a year, then had to re-learn it more or less from scratch. The good news is that he has successfully put his musical career back on track.For Aquino, however, this was a time for self-reflection, and “Italian Songbook” its logical outcome: “Ever since I was little, the traditional music and popular songs of my homeland have been with me. Music was all around, the latest Italia...
